Rationed Health Care

I pay a good chunk of my income towards medical insurance. Then co-pays for treatment and medications eat up some more money.

One would thing that with all that money going into the system, actually getting something back would be easy enough. It isn't. Yesterday we found out that my wife is quickly nearing the end of her physical therapy visits for the year. It's not even the middle of May.

I met with her physical therapist yesterday. He showed me how to assist my wife with her physical therapy at home. Visits to him have been dropped down from twice a week to once a week to stretch out our few remaining PT visits.

A neurologist suggested a new therapy for my wife, but we have no more coverage for the new program. We are thinking of having her start the new program and then try and duplicate it on our own.

My wife is also on a custom medication that isn't covered by insurance at all.

Personally, I haven't seen a doctor in years. Maybe I should, but I don't. Right now I'm nursing a huge bruise on my let. Keeping it elevated, putting ice on it, and taking aspirin. It appears to be getting better. If you'd ever dealt with a Workman's Compensation Doctor, you'd have a dislike for all doctors too.

Here's the thing. As far as I can tell, the new health care bill isn't going to improve my medical plan at all. I've got insurance. By today's standards, it's pretty good insurance. A single player plan might have covered my wife's PT, but I guess we'll never know.

Medical bills helped bankrupt my parents. They had the same insurance that I had, but co-pays and uncovered expenses were enough to drive them into poverty. That's private insurance for you.

Now my granddaughter is covered for free under NH Healthy Kids. This state run program pays for everything. My daughter has had a lot of worries since her divorce, but getting medical care for her daughter hasn't been one of them.

As for my wife and I, we'll just have to figure something out. More do-it-yourself physical therapy. More alternative medicines.

Perhaps more just plain doing without.

I don't expect the private insuracne to get better and I don't have much hope that the government will sort it out. The government doesn't have the money. Like everything else around here, health care is another do-it-yourself project.

-Sixbears